1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cassette accommodation case preferable for accommodating a tape cassette such as a compact cassette and the like for audio use, and more particularly to a cassette accommodation case having a display function enabling an index card on which a stereoscopic synthetic picture is printed to be seen as a 3-dimensional image (3D) through a lenticular lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional cassette accommodation case having this kind of display function will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a cassette accommodation case, a compact cassette, and an index card in a separated state. FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a state in which the compact cassette and the index card are accommodation in the cassette accomodated case.
The cassette accommodation case is made of plastic moldings and comprises a case body 1 and a case lid portion 3 which can be opened and closed about a hinge portion 2 as a fulcrum for rotation. A bottom of the case body 1 has a pair of reel rotation stoppers 4, 4 which engage with reel hub apertures of a cassette when a compact cassette which will b e described later is accommodated there in. Further, cassette supporting ribs 5, 5 are formed on a wall face 1a of the case body 1 on an opening end side opposite to the hinge portion 2 of the case body 1.
A cassette accommodation pocket 6 is provided on a back face of the case lid portion 3 at its hinge portion 2 side and a vertical stripe shaped lenticular lens face 7 is formed entirely on an external surface of the case lid portion 3. For this reason, the case lid portion 3 is molded of at least transparent plastic.
A compact cassette is indicated by reference numeral 8. The compact cassette 8 contains therein a pair of tape reels (not shown) which are rotatable and reel hub apertures 10, 10 coincide with a pair of opening portions 9, 9 formed through the cassette case. Further, the compact cassette 8 comprises a swelling portion 11 formed in a trapezoidal shape so as to form a tape mouth at one side portion thereof.
On the other hand, an index card is indicated by reference numeral 12. A folded piece 14 is formed through a folding line 13 at one end side of the index card 12. A stereoscopic synthetic picture 15 is printed on one surface of the index card 12. An index marking area 16 is printed on the other surface thereof as shown in FIG. 3.
Then, with the stereoscopic synthetic picture 15 of the index card 12 in contact with a rear face of the case lid portion 3 of the cassette accommodation case, the folding piece 14 is incorporated in a bottom portion of the cassette accommodation pocket 6 and a cassette label 17 (see FIG. 2) is accommodated so as to overlap the index card 12. Successively, the compact cassette 8 is accommodated in the cassette accommodation pocket 6 in order from the swelling portion 11 side. By closing the case lid portion 3 to the case body 1 side, a state in which the compact cassette 8 is accommodated as shown in FIG. 2 is presented.
The compact cassette 8 in the accommodation condition is supported by the cassette supporting ribs 5 of the case body 1 while the reel hub apertures 10 are engaged by the reel rotation stoppers 4 to prevent the reels from being rotated so that the cassette is accommodated stably.
The stereoscopic synthetic picture 15 of the index card 12 accommodated in the cassette accommodation case together with the compact cassette 8 can be seen as a 3-dimensional image through the lenticular lens face 7 formed on the external surface of the case lid portion 3. For this 3-dimensional image to be seen clearly, the stereoscopic synthetic picture 15 needs to be in close contact with the rear surface of the case lid portion 3 with no clearance.
By the way, in the above cassette accommodation case, it is necessary to provide a predetermined space between the top face of the compact cassette 8 and the case lid portion 3 because of a tolerance in dimension of the compact cassette 8 to be accommodated and deviations in thickness of the index card 12 and the cassette label 17. For the reason, although the index card 12 which is accommodated between the top face of the compact cassette 8 and the case lid portion 3 can be made to firmly contact the rear face of the case lid portion 3 on the swelling portion 11 side of the compact cassette 8 because the space between the compact cassette 8 and the case lid portion 3 is small, there occurs a large space relative to the case lid portion 3 in a portion opposite to the swelling portion 11. Further, there is no member for supporting the index card 12. Thus, as shown in FIG. 2, the index card 12 is warped so that if there occurs a gap relative to the rear face of the case lid portion 3, the operation of the lenticular lens is not exerted and an 3-dimensional image effect of the stereoscopic synthetic picture 15 is lost. As a result, a product performance as a cassette accommodation case is reduced.
When a user writes a content of description into the index marking area 16 printed on the rear face of the index card 12, folded back this index marking area 16 to the front side and then accommodates it in the cassette accommodation case such that it can be seen through the case lid portion 3, if the opening end side of the index card 12 is warped so that there occurs a gap relative to the case lid portion 3, the content of the description on the index marking area 16 cannot be read clearly by an effect of the lenticular lens surface 7.
In addition to the accommodation case for the compact cassettes, for example, some types of compact disk (CD) accommodation cases have a function for making the index card to contact the case lid portion on which the lenticular lens surface is formed and to support the former. However, a structure of a mold for forming the case lid portion becomes complicated so that the mold cost becomes expensive.